Thursday, September 15, 2011

Does Your Moral Compass Point North?

On my moral compass I have put the four most important things that have helped me to make decisions throughout my life. The points of my moral compass include my family, my friends, loyalty, and baseball. Of these four things my family is the most important to me. Friends can get angry and leave or leave you behind as they go on to further their own life. Your family on the other hand will always be there when you need them. I can always be confident in the fact that when I get lost my family will be there to point me north. From the time you are born you spend more time with your family than anyone else and because of this the morals I have formed are based heavily on those of my family.
Though I know friends will come and go I know they play a large role in my life. They are there to help me make the good decisions as well as some of the bad ones. Whether good or bad for you, they are there to support and help you progress through life, and their input weighs heavily on all decisions you make. Whether or not your friends are as loyal as you believe, loyalty is one of the most important qualities a person can possess.
 When making a decision that will affect other people I always want to make sure my loyalty stays intact. If you are without loyalty, then you might as well consider yourself immoral as well. For if you are willing to betray the trust of another then in very few circumstances can you be right.
 Lastly I consider baseball as something that guides me in my decision making. I have played baseball my entire life and I love it second only to my family. To play baseball my entire life would be a dream come true, and that dream has kept me working hard my entire life. Instead of going out to have fun, I went to the baseball diamond and worked on my hitting. I practice six days a week so that I can be the best. When people ask me why, I love to recite my favorite quote: “No one can stop a home run. No one can understand what it really is, unless you have felt it in your own hands and body.... As the ball makes its high, long arc beyond the playing field, the diamond and the stands suddenly belong to one man. In that brief, brief time, you are free of all demands and complications” (Sadaharu Oh). Anyone who says baseball is boring has never experienced the feeling you get of hitting a homerun off of your rival to tie the game, jogging the bases as your team rushes to greet you. It is that feeling that keeps me making good decisions.
Together it is these four values that have lead me on what I would consider a moral path. I do what I love and I try to help out others along the way. The four values are all linked as well. My loyalty to my family is what reminds me to listen to them, and it is them who keep me working hard at baseball. Along the way my friends have helped to show me my mistakes and keep me on the right path. Well now I have shared everything that has helped me to find my moral path, and to end my blog I will leave you with a quote because someone has already summed up my paper better than I can myself: “If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control” (Marin Luther King Jr.).

6 comments:

  1. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT. nice post. playing sports is a great way to stay on a moral path. does your compass help you when you are struggling at something, specifically does it help you be better at baseball?

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  2. Okay cody, i like your thought about family and baseball, however, you rarely touch upon your other two, loyalty and friends. If anything, i think that these two hold a little higher impact in someones life. Just one man's opinion. What are your thoughts on friends who are disloyal?

    -Grant Solis

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  3. Cody, great post. However, you need to mention loyalty and friends a little bit more here. I love your paragraph on baseball because it gives a great explanation on your passion for baseball and how important it is in your life.<3

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  4. I liked about what you said about the importance of loyalty. I agree that it is a very desirable trait, especially in friendships. I agree with Grant that you maybe should have expanded on that trait. I like how passionately you described baseball, it reminds me of my love for music and the dedication it takes to become skillful in your hobby. Good post <3

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  5. I would think that your baseball direction on your compass would simply fall under the definition of passion. That's awesome that you have such a drive for baseball and it's also something I didn't know about you. And I agree with you on the whole thing about friends coming and going. But what's great is that there are a select few who stick by, and are the most meaningful to your life as you get older. Nice post, Cody

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  6. Cody, this was a great post. I really liked how you included a quote at the end, it really got me thinking about everything that's happened to me in the past as well as where I'm heading in the future. It sounds like you're on the right track to a great life. Keep it up =]

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